Dezider Scheer on boat to Dominican Republic

Held by

Montreal Holocaust Museum via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)

Dates

1940 (indexed as 1940)

Level

item

Extent

Photograph : Digital file : b&w

Scope & content

Straight white border. Informal group portrait of a group of 6 men sitting on the ground or on a bench with coats and luggage. A group of women, whose heads are not visible, stand behind them. Dezider Scheer escaped to the Dominican Republic during the holocaust. Narrative: Dezider Scheer was born April 26, 1918 in Mosovce, Slovakia to Nathan Scheer and Paulina Scheerova. In 1939, when Slovakia began to pass anti-Jewish laws, the Scheer family decided to immigrate illegally to Palestine, using a visa for Shanghai. Because of the cost and danger of the trip, it was decided that Dezider, then 20, would go first and then help bring his family over. He departed for Italy where a Greek boat was supposed to take him to Palestine, but the boat never came. Scheer and other Slovak refugees lived illegally in Italy for several months until they were arrested and placed in an Italian concentration camp, which Scheer described as very humane. The Dominican Republic Settlement Association (DORSA) came to the camp looking for young Jewish men to work on farms in the Dominican Republic. Scheer was selected and left for the Dominican Republic, via Spain, Portugal and the United States, in October 1940. About 700 Jewish refugees settled in Sosua, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic during this time, where they were given land and cows. Dezider Scheer remained in Sosua until 1950 before selling his farm and moving to Canada to join his brother Jan Siroky (Scheer). Dezider Scheer’s mother and four of his siblings survived the Holocaust; two sisters and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins were deported and killed.

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Genre / form

graphic material

In the picture

BenchBoat TripCoatCrowdDeckGroup PortraitHatManPassengerRailingShipTravelWomanTagged automatically by a vision model; may contain mistakes.

Text in the image

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Harvested

2026-10-19T03:21:16Z · source datestamp n/a · andornot

Digital objects at the source

• imageOpen original at source ↗1990.87.39.jpg